Local legislators are disappointed this year’s legislative session did not end with the passage of a bonding bill.

District 27A Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, said the House and Senate had agreed to keep the bonding bill clean before the Senate attached funding for Southwest Light Rail.

Bennett attributed the bonding bill’s failure to political game playing.

“That was really disappointing to me,” she said.

Bennett said the House passed a bonding bill Sunday with $696.5 million in funding for roads and bridges on a 91-39 bipartisan vote.

She said multiple local projects were included in the bonding bill:

• $7.5 million for Riverland Community College’s Albert Lea campus

• Funding for sewer infrastructure renovation in the Stables area

• $12.5 million for Small Cities Road Assistance, a new program established by House Republicans in 2015

• Funds for township road repairs

Bennett said she hopes a special session is convened, noting she hopes legislators keep the bonding bill the same as it was passed in the House and they pass it quickly and efficiently.

District 27 Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said the ending was frustrating.

“It was just disappointing,” he said.

Sparks said a big issue was that the sides weren’t able to compromise, but he was pleased to be able to pass a few bills he worked on with compromises from Republicans and Democrats, such as telecommunications reform, utilities railroad crossing, retainage for subcontractors and agriculture policy.

Greater Minnesota Executive Partnership Executive Director Dan Dorman said Republicans and Democrats are to blame for failing to pass a bonding bill, noting he was disappointed it did not pass. He said he was concerned that the Legislature attempted to pass several major bills in the final hours of the legislative session.

He said an agreement was reached on a bonding bill at about 9 p.m. Sunday, noting the House passed the bill at about 11:55 p.m. before the Senate conferred and amended the bill with the transit funding. The House had already adjourned by that point, but Dorman noted he did not think the bonding bill would have passed with the provision.

He said if the Senate keeps insisting on the funding on the bonding bill, its prospects could start to unravel in a special session.

 

Local government aid 

A tax bill that passed included a $20 million increase in local government aid.

Dorman said though his agency had pushed for a return to 2002 LGA funding levels, he thinks the increase is a good start based on proposals from Gov. Mark Dayton and the House.

He said the increase provides a good starting point for an increase in the 2017 legislative session.

Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities President Robert Broeder said in a press release the funding increase shows LGA remains a critical program for Greater Minnesota cities.

“Although it falls short of our goal to bring LGA funding back to its 2002 level, we are pleased lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were able to come to an agreement to boost LGA,” Broeder said, noting he thinks mayors and city officials from across Greater Minnesota have worked extremely hard to help legislators understand why additional LGA funding is needed to keep property taxes under control and provide needed services.

“We’re happy our efforts produced positive results,” he said.

 

Tax credits and cuts

As the midnight Sunday deadline to pass bills fell, lawmakers had finalized some pieces of their plans to use a $900 million budget surplus. That includes a package of $260 million in tax credits and cuts to help farmers, parents, businesses and college students. They also passed extra spending on a statewide voluntary preschool program and broadband Internet infrastructure development.

Bennett said she was pleased with the tax bill and a supplemental budget bill that includes the exclusion of military pensions from state income tax, noting she thinks it is long overdue for veterans.

She said she was pleased with the Legislature’s $35 million investment in broadband and other tax relief measures, noting she thinks tax relief measures allow people to keep more of their money in the wake of the state’s $900 million surplus.

She said the tax bill includes more than $500 million in permanent tax breaks for middle-class Minnesotans.

 

Bennett’s bills
included

Bennett said she is happy her bills — including increased funding for teacher student loan forgiveness, Minnesota Reading Corps and a bill that would ask the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System and the Minnesota Department of Education to review guideline scores for students, parents and families in planning for a post-secondary education — were included in a supplemental budget bill that passed.

She said Albert Lea Area Schools is one of three pilot schools of a project — Rock ‘n’ Read — that she co-authored. The program would use music to help students who are struggling in reading and math.

All of the bills were included in a supplemental budget bill that Dayton must still sign into law.

 

Shell Rock River
Watershed District receives funding

Included in the annual Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council bill passed in the closing days of the session was $1.2 million to the Shell Rock River Watershed District for the continuation of phase five of the district’s habitat restoration program.

The $1.2 million proposal includes the establishment of wetland basins, re-establishment of native vegetation and key targeted land acquisitions to protect habitat.

“We’re really grateful that the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council and the Legislature put together and passed the bill, and that we were included in it,” Administrator Brett Behnke said. “I want to say thank you to the LSOHC for continuing to be partners with us in our ongoing habitat restorations and for recognizing the amazing improvements that have been happening with the state’s investment.”

 

— Jason Schoonover contributed to this report.